VALDOSTA – After several red flags and a long, hot day, Denny Hamlin won his second Daytona 500 in four years.
The Daytona 500 for me was one of the most exciting and joyous experiences I’ve had.
Brooke Starr and I broadcasted from the infield of Daytona International Speedway the morning of the race and I had the pleasure of meeting so many new and amazing people. My favorite had to be the U.S.A.F. Thunderbirds.
It wasn’t just the meeting of the people that made this a great day; it was the excitement and the energy throughout the track, knowing we were about to watch a great race. People from all over the world were at this event. People from London, Australia and all over the United States were there.
Hearing those loud engines come in front of you as the race is starting is exhilarating and nothing will get your heart beating as fast. I got chills from the beautiful day and the loud racecars. I was a kid in a candy store.
I’ll never forget my experience there and the people I got to meet.
The Daytona 500 had so much hype this year for several reasons: new faces in the cup series, new Ford Mustang and William Byron won his first pole.
The race started out very aggressive and hot. The Daytona weather made for a slick track and exciting racing.
The Cup Series has stages in every race so for the Daytona 500, there were stage wins coming after two 60-lap runs. The winners of the stages get extra points that help them in the playoffs.
Kyle Busch won the first stage to gain extra points and Ryan Blaney charged his way to the front to win stage two.
The race finally gets under 30 laps and all hell brakes loose. Several wrecks happened in the last 30 laps that resulted in red flags.
The wrecks were so insane that they had to take a while to clean up the track.
After the red flags, the race had to go into overtime with seven cars remaining and that’s when Hamlin showed he was the class of the field. Hamlin finished in front Joe Gibbs’ teammates, Kyle Busch and Erik Jones.
This was a long race but worth it for the Toyota driver.
